home for the holidays -- highlights

It as great to be home for Christmas. As hard as it was to be celebrating our first Christmas without Steve, I think we did pretty good. Neil and Di had the Kelly Christmas party with everyone on the Saturday night before Christmas.. great food, good people, good fun. It was especially fun to have the cousin "girls" there! Like old times...

For Christmas Eve, Tony organized a dinner at Scoppazi's, our favorite restaurant in Boulder Creek. All of us, my nephew Justin and his wife Sarah, and the Brook family, Lara, Arwin, Lisa, Chana, Teya and mother Janet,(they also lost their father this year) enjoyed our favorite dishes. Adriana and Teya entertained us with Christmas carols and both Janet and I enjoyed the family time. It was great, as it turned out, half the restaraunt was filled with old friends and more family. My nephew Jason, his wife Karen and their kids and Karen's mom and dad, the Knights, the Greene's,the Livingston's and others. Our wonderful nephew and niece Justin and Sarah treated us to our dinner! They are the best.

Christmas morning was a kick!! Every present Adriana opened, she would say, "Oh my goodness!" It is so fun to have children around on Christmas day... It helped us all through a tough time. The best surprise for me was a fantastic portrait of my children, daughter in law and granddaughter, framed and beautiful... taken by my lovely niece-in-law, Sarah..(the best!)

Highlighting my week off was a day with my friends Emily and Larry, where we headed to the city to see the musical, "Jersey Boys." It was awesome! Also, several days with my darling Adriana who kept me running... One day we took a walk on West Cliff with my friends Sally and Linda... They walked, we ran. I had Adriana in the stroller. In order to satisfy her "need for speed," I ran while pushing the stroller, much to her delight! We went so fast her new tennis shoes "burned rubber" and are permanently damaged!! Next baby, Grandma needs a jogging stroller!

I was also able to celebrate my mother's birthday with her and the rest of the family... she was 79 on Dec 30..hard to believe. I only hope I am as active and attractive when I get to be that age!

New Year's Eve was going to be hard... Ok, so what to do...Have a dinner party!! (Tony and Kelly went to the city with friends for the night..) Steph, Lisa, Arwin, Chana, Adriana and Teya..We had a girls party, complete with hats, horns, champagne, artichokes, prime rib and twice baked potatoes..yum, yum. We let the little girls stay up until midnight and blow the horns in the back yard. Adriana said Hi! to Pop, pop, who, as you know, is now the "man in the moon..." It was fun..

The absolute best part of the visit home was the birth of Macklin James Steven Langridge, Colleen and Michael's second child and our first boy grandchild. He was 9lbs, 6oz - 21"...and adorable! On January 12, 2007, Nick and I accompanied Steve, Chris and Jessica to the hospital, expecting to wait in the waiting room...amazingly, we got to look through the window into the operating room where the baby was being born by cesarian section...I saw them pull the baby out!!! Well, only the head, but... it was so cool. We got to see him when he was just 5 minutes old. Colleen did great and Mike was all thumbs up and smiles! It was so awesome to be able to share the family experience. Colleen's sisters' MaryKate, Maureen and her neice Colleen were all there too!! Good times..

The trip back was fine. I now have two house guests, my sister-in-law, Shelley and niece Vanessa who are staying with me until Jan 29. We saw the Tower of London today and next week we are heading to Paris... I think I can be a tour guide now!!